50 - Calling All Creeps! Read Free

went flying across the room.
    It sprayed Pepsi as it flew. Then landed in the middle of Tasha’s keyboard.
    She let out a squeal. Jumped up. Knocked her chair over.
    I quickly grabbed up a handful of paper napkins from the table and darted
across the room.
    “Don’t worry. I’ll clean it up!” I told Tasha. The keyboard was soaked. I
frantically started to mop the keys. “No—Ricky— stop !” Tasha shrieked.
Too late. I stared in horror at what I had done.

 
 
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    “Aaaaiiiiii!” Tasha opened her mouth in an angry scream. She tugged at her
red hair with both hands.
    “You creep! Ricky, you creep!” she cried.
    She shouldn’t call people names. But she had good reason to be angry at me.
    I had erased the whole front page.
    The screen glowed at us. Bright blue. Solid blue.
    No words. No pictures.
    “Uh… sorry,” I murmured.
    “Maybe I can get it back,” Tasha told Melly. “Maybe there is a way to find it
and pull it back up.”
    Tasha shoved me out of the way, picked up her chair, and sat down. “Oh!” She
let out another cry when she realized she had sat in a puddle of soda.
    Staring at the solid blue screen, she began typing furiously.
    I could see that the keys were still wet and sticky. She kept making mistakes. Backing up. Typing again. Typing. Typing.
Muttering under her breath the whole time.
    No use. No good.
    The front page refused to come back.
    Finally, she gave up with a loud groan. She tossed her hair in the air with
both hands. And turned to me with a growl.
    “You creep!” she cried. “All that work! All that work—lost!”
    I swallowed hard. “Tasha, it was an accident,” I muttered. “Really. It was
just an accident.”
    “You little creep!” Tasha shrieked. Melly stood beside her, glaring at me
angrily, shaking her head.
    “Wart pushed me!” I cried. I turned to the table. Wart and David had vanished
from the room.
    “You’re off the paper!” Tasha screamed. “Get out, Ricky. You’re out of here!”
    “Huh?” My heart stopped for a second. “No, Tasha—wait!” I pleaded.
    “Get out! Get out!” She made shooing motions with both hands. The way you
shoo away a dog. “You’re off the paper! I mean it!”
    “But—but—but—” I sputtered like an outboard motor. “But I need the
activity points! Please give me a second chance! Please !” I begged.
    “Out!” Tasha insisted.
    Melly tsk-tsked and shook her head.
    “You’re so unfair !” I wailed.
    I know, I know. I sounded like a baby. But, give me a break. It really was unfair.
    I turned and slunk to the door. And guess who was standing there. Guess who
had watched the whole ugly scene.
    You’re right.
    Iris.
    Her first day of school. And she already knew what a loser I was.
    “What are you doing here?” I asked glumly.
    “They said I needed an after-school activity. So I thought I’d try the
newspaper,” Iris replied. She followed me down the empty hall. “But I don’t
think I want to join the newspaper. That red-haired girl is really mean.”
    “Tell me about it,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.
    “She shouldn’t have called you a creep,” Iris continued. “It was just an
accident. She’s horrible! She should give you another chance.”
    Maybe Iris and I will become good friends, I thought.
    I pulled my blue parka from my locker. Then Iris and I made our way out of
the building.
    The afternoon sun was already dropping behind the houses and bare trees. It
gets dark so early here in the winter. Patches of snow on the lawns and sidewalk
gleamed dully as we walked toward the street.
    “Which way is your house?” I asked, shifting my backpack over my parka.
    Iris pointed.
    “Mine too,” I said. We started walking together. I didn’t really feel like
talking. I was still totally upset about getting kicked off the newspaper.
    But I felt glad that Iris was on my side.
    We crossed the street and made our way up the next block. A tall hedge
stretched along the entire block, broken